Camera Labs

Alright, so I've been doing some reading, and I've read that DSLR cameras have a maximum shutter of 30 seconds, even in bulb mode! It's some safety feature of the camera, which astrophotographers must dread. The only way to get past this is plugging the camera into a computer and controlling it from the PC. Is this true? I hope not, because my laptop has a TERRIBLE battery life!

Thanks!

-Evan

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

Not that I'm aware of. My D700 will open the shutter for as long as I keep it open, as would my D90, D300 and D70 before that. Where did you read this?

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Nikon D700 | 20mm f2.8 | 28mm f2.8 | 50mm f1.8 | 70-300 f4-5.6 | SB800 | flickr | serial photography

My Canon 500D will stay open as long as you want on bulb.. Well, until the battery goes flat.

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Recent pics on flickr


Canon 500D, 18-55mm IS, 55-250mm IS, 50mm f1.8 II, 430exII

Same goes for my 50D, and the 450D before it. What you've read can't be true, at least not for all cameras

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Canon DSLRs: 5D Mark III, 7D
Canon lenses: 17-40/4L, 24-105/4L, 24/1.4L II, 50/1.4, 85/1.8, 100/2.8L Macro, 70-200/2.8L IS, 100-400L
Other stuff: Canon 580 EX II, Canon 430EX II, Velbon Sherpa 600R
Apple: MacBook Pro 15", iMac 27", iPad III, iPhone 4S, Apple TV

My deviantART

Just to add-
My Olympus E510 has a max. timed-shutter of 60 sec., plus the "bulb" mode. My Sony H5 (not actually a DSLR), on the other hand, has a max. of 30 sec., and I'm unsure of bulb.
Using a remote (wired or IR) makes things a -lot- easier, especially for bulb.

Floyd.

I forget where I read it, but it may have been about the D7000, which is a new camera.

Good to know that this isn't true on the other cams!

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

No, the D7000 certainly won't have a 30 second limit. I can almost guarantee that. You'll have been reading the article incorrectly.

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Nikon D700 | 20mm f2.8 | 28mm f2.8 | 50mm f1.8 | 70-300 f4-5.6 | SB800 | flickr | serial photography

So the reason for that is simple: the sensor gets heated as it is exposed to light, the more it heats itself, the more noise you get, so eventually after a one minute exposure, even i very low light, the image can be unbareably noisy. Also, as we know, the overheating of electronics is not anything welcome.

This is why full frame sensors suffer less from noise, as the neighbouring pixels are more apart, they influence one another to a lesser extent. Result - less noise at greater ISO. It works the other way round too, the small compact lenses are very dense with pixels, so they suffer from noise much more.

So if you're after really long exposures, you have to go for the film. Here's a video, explaining everything:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpa15Jy5JZI

By the way, the tutorials they give are great not only for Nikon, they're good for understanding photography in general.

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Karol Mozdzierz
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Nikon D5000, 18-55 DX 3.5-5.6, 70-300 4.5-5.6

For astrophotography it's possible to make shots of 20min each. But the noise is awful, and you have to take many shots, including Dark Frames.

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies